A rare Conn Lady Face tenor from 1935, Serial #266,248.
Acquired by us earlier this year, together with half a dozen vintage saxes previously owned by a repair shop in France.
Cigar-Cutter Selmer, a good pre-war Balanced Action Selmer tenor, a sixties M6 alto and a few other pieces. All are now in the process of being brought back to life, slowly, a pad at a time.
Our 10M appears to have originally been sold to a dealer in Colombia. We acquired it from a shop in Bordeaux.
When I play tenor, I use a Conn LF from early 1946. It's pretty much the same as the late thirties 10M I bought (with paper-route money) in 1957. I like Conn tenors, have owned many, prefer the rolled tone-hole models, though.
Our 1935 Lady Face is silver. Bright silver plate to the keys, satin-silver to the body and neck. Several of the stack keys showed bubbling to the silver, so we had Anderson re-plate them.
By 1935, silver was not considered the most stylish finish for saxophones. Which raises an issue... The serial number and patent number, the key posts and the area around the thumb-rest show no signs of heavy buffing. Key pearl cups show some moderate wear to the metal, but not much. G# key-touch shows no wear at all. The satin-silver finish to the body is smooth, not uneven anywhere.
The neck's very clean, no dents, no re-solders, no damage.
Does have RH forked E-flat key. Note the "birdcage" low B / Bb key guard.
We see some signs of light feathering (only) to the bell engraving on this beauty. But with no other evidence of buffing, we do believe the silver plate is original. Except for the half-dozen stack keys that we've re-plated.
Perhaps, since the sax was a special order (military?) from a shop in Bogota, the boys at Elkhart took a body off the line after the engraving had been done, then had it plated.
It came to us pretty dirty, also. We've saved the pads, some of which appear to be the originals. We burnished out a couple of small bell-dings, and then soaked the body in soapy water for two days. Amazing what soup and water can do!
Photos posted are of "works in progress", with the completion date expected on October 10.
The case is definitely the original, but it's beat to death. Price includes the original plus a new modern case.
Bottom line.... It's my opinion that a post 1930 / pre-1947 Conn 10M is the best tenor ever made. NOT a modern sax by any stretch of the imagination. Play scales for three days, get accustomed to the "fat" feel of the keywork and you'll never go back to a modern French instrument.
With original case (beat to death) and also new case, our 24 month warranty, this beauty gets our full recommendation.
Mouthpiece is not included, but our twenty-four month service warranty IS included.
We have no hesitation in recommending it to the most particular musician.
Ask about international shipping for a better rate.
Employee Code: EDR